Steel tariffs to be lifted against 4 countries

This is a huge victory for those who turn steel into useful products.Detroit Free PressThe auto industry won a surprising victory in a trade dispute over steel on Thursday, as a federal panel voted to drop import tariffs on a key type of steel from four countries.The vote by the U.S. International Trade Commission follows months of debate and an aggressive campaign against the tariffs by the world’s six largest automakers, which banded together on a trade issue for the first time. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler AG raised their opposition to the tariffs in their meeting with President George W. Bush in November.The steel industry had argued that the tariffs against corrosion-resistant steel from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea were necessary to protect their nascent economic recovery. The six-member ITC voted unanimously to keep tariffs in place against Germany and South Korea, but dropped the remaining tariffs by a 4-2 vote.